TONY WORSLEY

#6

Over the course of 1965 Tony Worsley reputedly sold over 70,000 records, climaxing in his biggest and best-remembered hit, a dreamy cover of the Australian pop ballad, "Velvet Waters".

THE VIBRANTS

#10

The Vibrants were a mid 1960s pop rock group that emerged from Bobby James and the Vibrants in Adelaide. They charted with "My Prayer" in 1967.

THE TWILIGHTS

#2

Their biggest national chart success came with their dynamic cover of the Velvelettes' "Needle in a Haystack" (August 1966). Although the group was reportedly not enamored of the song, manager Gary Spry insisted that they record it and it made the Top 10.

THE THROB

#4

The Throb were an R&B-based garage rock band from Sydney, Australia, who were active in the mid-1960s. Despite their short tenure, they achieved a brief moment of success, scoring a major hit in 1966 with a cover version of "Fortune Teller", originally recorded by Benny Spellman, and which had previously been covered by The Rolling Stones.

THE SEEKERS

#1

"The Carnival Is Over" is a Russian folk song from circa 1883, adapted with English-language lyrics, written by Tom Springfield, for the Australian folk pop group The Seekers in 1965. The song became The Seekers' signature recording, and the band have customarily closed their concerts with it ever since its success in late-1965. At its 1965 sales peak, The Seekers' single was selling 93,000 copies per day in the UK and is No.30 in the chart of the biggest-selling singles of all time in the United Kingdom, with sales of at least 1.41 million copies in the UK alone. The track spent three weeks at No.1 in the UK Singles Chart in November and December 1965.

The song also topped the Australian charts (for six weeks, from 4 December 1965), and reached No.1 in the Irish Charts for two weeks.

THE MASTERS APPRENTICES

#7

"Living in a Child's Dream", is regarded as an early example of Australian psychedelic rock and one of their greatest pop songs. It was recorded at the newly opened Armstrong's Studios in South Melbourne and like all their Astor cuts it was nominally produced by staff producer Dick Heming. According to Jim Keays, Heming's input was limited and most of the production was by engineer Roger Savage with considerable input from Molly Meldrum. Released in August 1967 at the peak of the Summer of Love, it reached Top Ten.

THE LOVED ONES

#9

The Loved Ones' released their second single "Ever Lovin' Man" in July 1966, which peaked at number nine in August

THE JOY BOYS

#4

Instrumental by Col Joye's band The Joy Boys. that went #4 in 1961.

THE HENCHMEN

#10

"Rockin' Robin" is a song written by Leon René under the pseudonym of Jimmie Thomas and recorded by Bobby Day in 1958. In 1965 The Henchmen covered the song that made its way into the Australian top 10.

THE GROOVE

#10

In February 1968 The Groove's cover version of Sam Cooke's "Soothe Me" went top ten. It was their most successful single. 

THE GROOP

#8

The Groop's best known hit single "Woman You're Breaking Me" was released in 1967. Written by band members Brian Cadd and Don Mudie it went top ten in May that year.

THE EASYBEATS

#1

"Friday on My Mind" is a 1966 song by Australian rock group the Easybeats. Written by band members George Young and Harry Vanda, the track became a worldwide hit, reaching no. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in May 1967 in the US, no. 1 on the Dutch Top 40 chart, no. 1 in Australia and no. 6 in the UK, as well as charting in several other countries. In 2001, it was voted "Best Australian Song" of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) as determined by a panel of 100 music industry personalities. In 2007, 'Friday on My Mind' was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry.

THE DELLTONES

#4

After several weeks of rehearsal The Delltones entered the recording studio in November 1962 to record "Come A Little Bit Closer", written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. When "Come A Little Bit Closer" was released in 1963, it was an immediate hit and eventually became their all time best seller. The single reached number 4 on the national charts

THE DE KROO BROTHERS

#9

Leo and Doug De Kroo were originally from Perth but based themselves in Sydney from 1960. They often appeared on the Australian TV pop shows (Bandstand, Six O'Clock Rock) and 'Scarlet' was their big national hit. It was released in 1963 reaching #9 on the national charts.

THE ATLANTICS

#1

In July 1963 The Atlantics released the single that would become their biggest hit, most well-known song and one which remains a classic of its genre to this day. The monstrous, pounding, driving "Bombora" was named after an Aboriginal term for large waves breaking over submerged rock shelves. The B-side was the old traditional English song "Greensleeves". By September 1963, "Bombora" had climbed the Australian charts to reach No 1. It was released in Japan, Italy, Holland, England and New Zealand and in South America.

RUSSELL MORRIS

#1

"The Real Thing" is a song originally recorded by Australian singer Russell Morris in 1969. His version, which was produced by Ian "Molly" Meldrum and written by Johnny Young, was a huge hit in Australia and has become an Australian rock classic. It also achieved success in the United States of America, reaching the top of the charts in Chicago and New York City.

Young had originally written the song for Meldrum's friend Ronnie Burns, but when Meldrum heard Young playing it backstage during a taping of the TV pop show Uptight, he determined to secure the song for Morris, reportedly going to Young's home that night with a tape recorder and refusing to leave until Young had taped a "demo" version of the song for him.

In collaboration with engineer John Sayers, Meldrum radically transformed "The Real Thing" from Young's original vision of a simple acoustic ballad into a heavily produced studio masterpiece, extending it to an unheard-of six minutes in length and overdubbing the basic track with many additional instruments, vocals and sound effects.

The bed track used the services of The Groop as backing band, with vocal contributions from Danny Robinson (Wild Cherries), The Chiffons, Maureen Elkner, with Sue Brady and Judy Condon, guitarist Roger Hicks from Zoot — who devised and played the song's distinctive acoustic guitar intro - and Billy Green who played electric guitar and sitar. The children's choir singing toward the end is the Hitler Youth singing "Die Jugend Marschiert" (Youth on the March). The single is reported to have cost A$2,000 — the most expensive single ever made in Australia up to that time (the typical budget for an entire album at the time) — and features one of the earliest uses of the studio technique known as "flanging" on an Australian recording. "The Real Thing" became a national number one hit for Morris in mid-1969 and is widely considered to be one of the finest Australian pop-rock recordings of the era.

The Real Thing was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2013.

ROSS D. WYLIE

#1

"The Star", written by Johnny Young went to the top of the charts in November 1969. It was later covered by United Kingdom act Herman's Hermits as "Here Comes the Star"

RONNIE BURNS

#2

"Smiley", Burns' biggest hit, reached number two on the national charts 40 in February 1970. It was written by Johnny Young, Young revealed that the song was inspired by the experiences of fellow pop star, Normie Rowe, whose music career ended in late 1967 when he was drafted into the Australian Army and he was sent to fight in the Vietnam War. It is one of the first Australian pop singles released in stereo and features a lavish orchestral and vocal arrangement by John Farrar (ex The Strangers) who went on to write and/or produce many hits for Olivia Newton-John.

ROLF HARRIS

#1

"Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" is a song written by Australian singer Rolf Harris in 1957 which became a hit across the world in the 1960s in two recordings (1960 in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom for the original, and 1963 with a re-recording of his song in the United States). Inspired by Harry Belafonte's calypsos, it is about an Australian stockman on his deathbed. The song is one of the best-known and most successful Australian songs.

Harris originally offered four unknown Australian backing musicians 10% of the royalties for the song in 1960, but they decided to take a recording fee of £28 among them because they thought the song would be a flop.

The recording peaked at No. 1 in the Australian charts and was a Top 10 hit in the UK in 1960. In 1963 Harris re-recorded the song in the UK with George Martin as producer and this remake of the song reached No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and spent three weeks atop the easy listening chart in 1963

ROBIN GIBB

#6

"Saved by the Bell" is a 1969 single written and recorded by Robin Gibb. It was released in June 1969 and has been certified gold. It was the lead single on Gibb's debut album Robin's Reign, released in early 1970. According to Vinyl Records, the song was co-produced by Kenny Clayton. Gibb also made a promotional video for this song. The song gained commercial success in Europe, but was a commercial failure in the US.